第211回：What in God’s name?!

Some time ago, a well-known entrepreneur wrote an essay on, of all things, religious symbolism in ONE PIECE. Reading it was certainly an experience but what baffled me the most was the lack of attention paid directly to the character Imu. Why? Because Imu’s name, his very name itself, is a reference to not one, but two spiritual figures: God and Buddha.

Nerona Imu’s name written in Japanese appears like this in katakana: ネロナ・イム where ネロナ is ‘ne-ro-na’ and イム is ‘i-mu’. As first pointed out to me by ONE PIECE’s official English translator, if we manipulate the characters of the given and family names, they can actually *combine* to form the Japanese kanji for ‘God’ and ‘Buddha’.

Imu is the easier to see so we’ll start with that. イム is basically the kanji already, simply move the two closer together and turn the イ into a proper ‘ninben’ radical and it becomes: 仏 or ‘hotoke’ meaning a ‘Buddha’.

As for Nerona, ネロナ, this actually lines up from left to right just as easily as Imu, but you need to use your imagination a bit and straighten out the curved vertical line of ナ. Essentially make a cross shape十. After that, place the ロ over the top of the cross. Then slide the ネto the left and you’ll get 神 ‘kami’ of ‘God’. Essentially making the name of the so-called ‘King of the World’, 神仏 or ‘shinbutsu’ which is an actual Japanese term meaning…well, just that, ‘gods and buddhas’.

Completely missing this carefully constructed nomenclature, the above-mentioned essay went on for some length about Christian ideas of God and Devil but the name here does not necessarily suggest a reference to the Christian God. In fact, it seems to point directly at the very unique relationship between culturally exclusive Japanese gods *and* the imported Buddhist deities (sometimes with overlap between them). ‘Shinbutsu’ has a second meaning and that is (very literally) ‘Shintoism and Buddhism’. As if we needed any further clues, Imu’s design/abilities line of closely with deities of Shintoism and Buddhism, not unlike Enel, who himself viewed himself as a deific entity. Furthermore, what’s particularly cool about all of this is that ‘shinbutsu’ is way more than just a naming convention for religions in Japan. It actually describes an entire cultural/religious ebb and flow of Shintoism and Buddhism. Throughout the history of Japan, these religions existed separately, then joined as one, only to later separate again, over and over.

Now…interestingly enough…while Imu himself is almost certainly a depiction of Japanese religious *and* cultural imagery (labeling it strictly one or the other can be complicated) the world surrounding him aren’t without a flair of various religions. ONE PIECE is overflowing with religious nomenclature, imagery, and themes from around the real world (not unlike a *certain* JRPG series). As it relates to Imu, while we still have much to learn, the concept of the Knights of God seems like a heavy Western influence. There’s a crusader vibe to the very notion of an order of literal ‘knights’ sworn to defend their God/King at all costs. As the story progresses, we may find even more religious themes borrowed from around the globe, especially when it comes to Imu’s abilities!